Pop Quiz: Rocker Kurt Vile on balancing ambition and weirdness

Singer-songwriter Kurt Vile is heading to the Bay Area, with a tour stop in Oakland on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Photo: Jo McCaughey, Matador

Don’t let his shaggy demeanor fool you. Kurt Vile wants to be the biggest rock star in the world. The 38-year-old singer, guitarist and songwriter from Philadelphia is making good progress, too.

In the decade since he released his fuzzy debut, 2008’s “Constant Hitmaker,” he has quietly inched his way toward the mainstream. “Pretty Pimpin,”the rambling lead single from his 2015 album, “B’lieve I’m Goin Down…,” has earned approximately 45 million Spotify streams; while his latest full-length release, “Bottle It In” – the official follow-up to his 2017 collaboration with Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett, “Lotta Sea Lice” — sees Vile setting out on his biggest headlining tour to date.

He spoke to The Chronicle from a tour stop in Washington, D.C.

Kurt Vile, seen performing at the Monterey International Pop Festival Celebrates 50 Years concert last year, is on his biggest headlining tour to date, and says he’s become a better performer. Photo: Nic Coury, Special to The Chronicle 2017

Q: Your music sounds so effortless. Are you a secret control freak when you’re in the studio?A: Not a control freak. I would say in some ways, sure, it’s got to be my way. But I think all my bandmates are control freaks of their domain.

Q: Whatever is going on, it’s working. This tour is getting unanimous praise. A: We started the tour in Europe where we played five weeks straight with not many days off. So we got really tight and then we came back to America. We just turned into a real pro band.

Q: You have released so much music in the past 10 years but still seem to exist on the fringe. Is that a good place for you ?A: Honestly, I’m always swinging for the fences. I know I have a hit record in me. But it’s also got a weird side, so it doesn’t always equate to the top of the charts. I kind of stretched out pretty psychedelically on this record. But I have got to a place where people have been following me for a long time. I can see the crowds. I can see their faces. I can see that there’s something extra going on.

Q: Do you feel like you’re becoming a better songwriter?A: I don’t think a songwriter. Performer. I look at my whole career and in some ways, the songs have become more fragmentary. Maybe they were more traditional earlier. I haven’t written a song with that kind of serpentine arrangement in a while. But I still have those types of songs in me.

Q: You look at someone like Neil Young, who has been doing this forever, and he always comes back with something solid like “Harvest Moon” after going off the rails. So as a songwriter, I think, you have permission to veer off the rails occasionally.A: Yeah, and I’m not saying this one was a miss. It’s my best album. It’s just that, in my brain, it’s a little out there. I’m an out there kind of guy. I also like the idea of having a beautiful, simple record that is universal in every way.

Q: You have been at this for about 10 years. You also became a father during that time. How have you changed?A: I would say I’m feeling pretty smooth. I feel really natural at home with the family. I also feel fully at home onstage. It’s the most natural I can feel. I feel 100 percent comfortable and not self-conscious and all those things. That’s the real me.

Q: Do you have any anxiety about turning 40?A: I’m really into it. I think of that Neil Young song, “When Your Lonely Heart Breaks.” That’s definitely somebody in their 40s. You can’t make that kind of music when you’re young. It’s very mature and beautiful and soulful. You’ve got to live it. I’m having a good time. I’m having more fun now than I did a few years ago.